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The students learned wrestling, honoring their clan founder, Hida, who was said he once killed an oni with his bare hands. This story was engraved on a large stone talblet standing at the front entrance of the dojo. The wrestling taught there focused on keeping them alive in unarmed combat. Those students who showed promise in the ritualistic wrestling, sumai, were passed along to the Stone Tower Dojo in Toshi Ranbo. [1]

The kata of the Hida Wrestling emphasized either furious attacks that delivered a flurry of feints and grapples primarily through upper body movement, or defensive techniques me8nt to render him as impervious as stone. In all cases, the lower body remained relatively still. [1]

The sensei was selected among veterans of the Kaiu Wall. All of them had been forced to fight the demons of the Shadowlands without a weapon to hand. They made demonstrations of techniques and harrowing lectures describing their own encounters. When a new instructor was needed and no obvious candidate existed, an equivalent of a Twenty Goblin Winter was declared. Any student to bring twenty bakemono heads succeeded to the open position. [1]